Student body president Maggie Guzman has a warning for students about the impending restructuring of USM: “They should be scared,” she said.
The We Vote coalition – headed by Guzman – will host an open forum to solicit input from students on USM’s impending implementation of the Plan on Dec. 3, which could leave the school with a very different look come next fall.
“Students may come back [from winter break] and find their major is on the chopping block,” Guzman at a meeting of the coalition before Thanksgiving break.
The forum – “The New University: Critical Choices,” aims to get students to weigh in on drastic changes to the University’s structure, as outlined in the Strategic Plan. The final version of the plan was released this summer, after nearly six months.
“The idea is to create transparency and collect concerns to bring to the administration, and for those concerns to be effectively incorporated into the decisions that will be made over [winter] break.” said Guzman. “We want students to become active citizens in their education and the restructuring of the University and begin to understand how this is going to effect them.”
While President Botman says she has yet to be contacted by any group of students regarding the implementation of the Strategic Plan, she is hopeful that they can find a role in the process. “I think it’s hard to get students to participate, but we want to get [them] involved,” said Botman.
It’s yet to be seen just how drastic the restructuring will be, but Guzman and the coalition expect major cuts to be announced following the deliberation period over winter break.
“In this economic climate, anything is possible,” Guzman said. “Vice president positions, colleges, and departments could be eliminated or consolidated,” she said.
The forum is also the chance for the coalition to outline just exactly what the Strategic Plan is to students who have not been following the ongoing internal assessment process.
“The Strategic Plan should be looked at as a guide to what the University could be,” said Student Senator Brandon Morse, who has also produced a Strategic Plan primer powerpoint that will be shown at the forum. “It’s a broad, open-ended guideline.”
The eight bullet point goals of the Strategic Plan vary in their tangibility. While goals like “supporting faculty research, scholarship, and creative activity” can be easily tracked, other goals like “strengthening community” are somewhat harder to measure.
“There are goals that have very tangible outcomes, but many of the goals do not,” said Guzman.
The plan comes as the University struggles to cope with an ever-falling state appropriation, and a one percent drop in enrollment for the fall semester. On Nov 16, the UMS Board of Trustees approved a plan to restructure the seven-campus University system to offset a structural deficit expected to reach $42.8 million by FY 2013. The plan calls for double the number of online students, and offering three-year degrees.
“We need to look at what can reasonably be cut,” said Guzman.
“We also need to cut enough to make sure USM will not be hurt by a falling funding,” added Morse.
During last week’s planning session, coalition members discussed ways to moderate the forum that would ensure students get the most accurate information.
Student representative to the board of trustees Dustin Ward emphasized mitigating student expectations, and not providing any false hope about the future of the university.
“We need to be careful we don’t get students riled up from misinformation,” said Ward.
“If there is unrest in the student body, that needs to be represented as well,” said Board of Student Organizations President Jessica McKee.
While the coalition is unsure of how concerned the Strategic Planning implementation committee is on factoring in student critiques of the plan, they have some specific ideas of what they would like to see happen.
“I would love SGA to do more than we do,” said Guzman. “Right now we control the student activity fee, but otherwise have no executive power.”
Ward shared his interest in seeing the University focus its academic offering into the sectors with the most growth potential, that are already found in Southern Maine.
“Because we’re focused in Portland, we need to look at programs like nursing, business, languages, allied health, and STEM (science and technology) programs,” said Ward.